When he got back to work he checked in with Lindy, who assured him that things were running smoothly. The opening band was playing, then Thunder Sky would take the stage. At first he’d thought they might not make it, since they hadn’t found a new singer to replace Reily. But then Steve had called yesterday afternoon to say that they would be able to play after all. Joe was relieved, because the last thing he felt like doing right now was interviewing bands. But the idea of hearing them play and listening to the songs that Reily had managed to make her own in the span of a couple weeks actually made him sick to his stomach. So he barricaded himself in his office instead, and though he tried to work, he found the best he could do was stare blindly at his computer screen. Maybe if he looked hard enough, it might give him the answers he was seeking, like how to make this stop hurting so much.
It had hurt when Beth left, too, but that pain had been more for his daughter. In a way, after so many rocky years, Joe had been relieved that it was finally settled, that he could stop tiptoeing around her. But this—what he was feeling now for Reily—it was excruciating.
A while later, when he still had gotten absolutely nothing done, Lindy knocked on his office door and poked her head in. “Joe, we need you out here.”
“Need me? Is there a problem?”
“Nope, no problem.”
“Then leave me alone,” he said, knowing that he sounded like a crab, but not caring.
“Your presence is requested in the bar.”
“By whom?”
She blew out an exasperated breath. “Would you just come out here. Please?”
He didn’t want to talk to anyone, including her. But he could see that she wasn’t going to leave him alone. “Fine,” he said, shoving his chair back from his desk so hard it banged the wall behind him.
He followed her out to the bar, looking around to locate the individual “requesting his presence,” and was overcome by an eerie sensation when he realized that everyone at the bar was looking at him. Everyone in the dining room as well. He also noticed that there was no music playing. He turned toward the stage, only to discover that everyone on the dance floor was staring at him, too. What the hell was going on? Had he just stepped into a freaking Twilight Zone episode?
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” someone said over the sound system, and Joe realized that Thunder Sky was onstage and Steve was introducing the band. Four of them, anyway. He didn’t see the new singer. Is that why Lindy had called him out here?
“We’re going to start the evening with a special request. This song goes out to Joe Miller.”
They started to play a song, one he was sure he’d never heard them play before, but there was something vaguely familiar about it. He turned back to Lindy, to ask her what the hell was going on, why they would dedicate a song to him, then froze when he heard a voice begin to sing.
Reily’s voice.
No, it wasn’t her. It had to be a recording, from some previous performance. This could be some sort of twisted joke they were playing on him, but why would they do that? Then it hit him…she was singing that song, the one she’d sung a cappella for Steve. About the country girl who lost herself and was trying to find a way back home. Back to who she used to be.
He slowly turned, heart pounding, and there she was. He was afraid that he wanted it so badly his mind had summoned the vision of her, or it was a trick of the light, a mirage. But then she looked right at him, smiled at him, and he knew it really was her. Suddenly the stage seemed to be getting closer and he realized that his feet were moving, carrying him toward her, and as he crossed the dance floor the crowd parted like the Red Sea. When he reached the stage he just stood there, gazing up at her while Reily sang to him, and when the song ended and the band launched into the Allman Brothers hit “Jessica”—one that he noted had no vocals—Reily held out her hand and he helped her down.
“What are you doing here?” he shouted over the music.
“I couldn’t do it, Joe. I couldn’t stay in Nashville. I knew the minute I stepped on that bus that it was a mistake. I made myself sit there for two days, thinking that when I got there I would feel differently, but I only felt worse.”
People were watching them, but he didn’t care. It was so loud no one more than a foot away would be able to hear them. “How did you get back here?”
“I stepped off the bus, took a cab to the airport and booked the first flight back to Colorado. I called Steve and he picked me up at the airport in Denver.”
“Why?”
“Why did I call Steve?”
“No, why are you here? Why did you come back?”
“Because you love me. I know you couldn’t tell me at the bus station because you didn’t want to influence my decision. You didn’t want to do the same thing to me that you did to Beth. You wanted me to make the choice on my own. And I choose to stay here, with you.”
He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her but he couldn’t; he was afraid to let himself believe that this could be real. “I do love you, Reily, but I can’t ask you to make that sort of sacrifice.”
“But you’re not. And besides, it’s not a sacrifice. Not anymore.”
“If you don’t go to Nashville and at least try, you’re going to regret it the rest of your life. I just can’t do that to you.”
She grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt and shouted, “Listen to me, Joe. Ever since I lost my parents, there’s been this empty place deep inside of me and I filled that with music. It was the only thing that made me feel close to my parents, made me feel whole again. But then I met you and Lily Ann, this whole town, and suddenly that empty space started to fill up again, until it was so full from your love and friendship that it was overflowing. Walking away from that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and the hole it left inside of me…” She shook her head, her eyes welling with tears. “There’s no song, no recording contract, no career that could ever make me feel as complete, as whole as I feel with you. You’re what I want now, Joe. You and Lily Ann.”
“But what about singing? You’re just going to give it up?”
“Heck, no! You’re looking at the new permanent lead singer for Thunder Sky. Music will always be important to me, but my family, they’ll always come first.”
He believed her. He would be an idiot not to. And when he pulled her into his arms, kissed her hard, the sound of cheers broke out all around them. Maybe he should have been embarrassed, but he was too happy to care. He didn’t care who saw them and who gossiped about them tomorrow. He just laughed and Reily did, too.
“Come with me,” he said, leading her to the back so he could welcome her back properly, without most of Paradise watching them.
“I love you, Joe,” she said when they were in the privacy of his office. “I want us to be a family.”
“I love you, too, and we’ll definitely be a family,” he said. “Just as soon as I can get a ring on your finger.”
She grinned up at him, her cheeks flushed, her smile bright. “That sounded a little like a marriage proposal.”
“Consider it a sneak peek of what’s to come when I actually get the ring.”
“How is Lily Ann? I hope she’s not too upset.”
“Lily Ann is fine. Since the day you left it’s as if she already knew you were coming back.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s been going on about how you’re going to walk her to school and come to her class for show-and-tell. She was even asking whether your baby will be a boy or a girl, because her personal preference is a little sister.”
She reached up, cupping his cheek. “A little girl would be nice. Or a boy. Or maybe even one of each. If that’s something you want.”
“Oh, I definitely want it.” He wanted to spend the rest of his life making her happy, because being with her was the o
nly thing that could make him happy, too.
“I have an idea,” he said. “Why don’t we go to the house so Lily Ann can see that you’re back?”
“Are you sure you want to wake her?”
“I’m sure. She’s going to be really happy to see you.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
He cradled her face in his hands and kissed her softly, unable to believe his luck. He’d let her go and she’d come back to him. “What will you tell your friends back in Montana when they learn you never made it big in Nashville? That you settled for a life in Paradise, Colorado?”
She gave him that sweet smile and rose up on her toes to press a kiss to his lips. “Well, first off, I’ll be sure they know that I didn’t settle one bit. And then I’ll tell them that I gave up my Nashville dream to be with the man of my dreams instead.”
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781459230422
Copyright © 2012 by Michelle Celmer
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No Ordinary Joe Page 19